Saratoga's Moe Baniani helps wishes come true by building water wells in remote South American villages

By Shannon Burkey, for Silicon Valley Community Newspapers

Posted:
03/19/2014 06:06:29 PM PDT

Updated:
03/19/2014 06:06:31 PM PDT

More than 780 million people around the world live without access to clean drinking water. If Moe Baniani has anything to do with it, though, that number will go down, even if it's by one water well at a time.

Baniani, a Saratoga resident and local Realtor, has been working with Houston-based Living Water to build water wells in remote villages in South America. He has taken two trips with the organization so far, one in 2012 to Nicaragua and one at the beginning of 2014 to Guatemala. He is also planning more trips in the future to help combat a big problem in the developing world that he says does not need to exist.

"In the U.S., we take drinking water for granted. It's not even something we think twice about having," Baniani said. "But it is a big issue in a lot of places around the world. So many people don't have drinking water. Every 21 seconds a child dies because of bad drinking water. It's a big problem and something that we can help prevent."

The problem is an urgent one in poverty-stricken countries around the world. According to Living Water, 2.2 million people die each year from a water-related disease, and many women spend 20 hours per week collecting water, some walking seven miles a day, often for contaminated water.

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Baniani first heard about the Living Water program through a friend at his church, Saratoga Federated. His friend had a pamphlet from the organization, and when Baniani saw it he started asking questions. After hearing about the program and the staggering statistics, he felt compelled to immediately act.

"My friend told me about the program and said he was going to Nicaragua," Baniani said, "and on the spot I said, 'I'm coming with you.' I go with my intuition, and when I saw that it was a real problem and there was something that I could do, I just thought I had to go."

Living Water began in 1997 and works to "implement participatory, community-based water solutions in developing countries." Since the organization was created, its volunteers have completed more than 10,000 water projects for communities in 26 countries.

Baniani said that each of his trips to South America were weeklong adventures that involved a lot of physical work but also a lot of mental and personal satisfaction.

"It was such a great experience," Baniani said. "When you go on any humanitarian mission, the person that goes gets more out of it than the person they helped. You come back as a different person and a better person."

On his most recent trip to Guatemala, Baniani, along with the team from Living Water, worked in the town of Nueva Concepcion. Baniani worked as one of eight drillers with the group, which also included four people who focused on delivering health and hygiene information. For four days, the team worked on drilling the water well using a mud rotary hydraulic rig. The wells are usually built in public places, such as schools, like in Nueva Concepcion, so that they will belong to everyone in the community.

"In some of these countries, people may have water but they don't have the means to have a deep enough well to have fresh water," Baniani said. "The well [in Nueva Concepcion] was hand dug and shallow, and the bathroom and well were not far from each other. The water is not clean, but most of the time they have to drink it. They don't have the money to buy bottled water."

Baniani said that aside from the lack of fresh drinking water and poverty the people of Nueva Concepcion had to deal with, he found that they weren't that different from him or his family and friends back home.

"You know what human beings are and how equal we all are because you see the similarities," he said. "There were moms taking their kids to school every day just like you see in Saratoga, and dads working hard to provide for their families. They also take a lot of pride in themselves and their appearance and surroundings."

Though he doesn't speak any Spanish and most of the Guatemalan people who worked alongside the team or lived in the village they were servicing didn't speak English, Baniani said they bonded.

"The connection you have with the people there is unbelievable," he said. "There was a guy named Carlos, a farmer, and he was there all day every day working with us. He worked harder than anyone else. All he could say in English was hello and goodbye, but we connected. And when we were finished he came up to me and gave me a big hug. This is a very manly man that probably doesn't hug people too often."

After the well was built, Baniani said the entire town came out for a dedication ceremony and ribbon cutting with a party afterward.

"Everyone was so excited. They were all there trying out the pump and getting water with big smiles on their faces," he said. "They fully understand what it means and they appreciated that we came to help them."

Though Baniani--who also travels to Mexico yearly with his church to build homes for the poor--is already planning another trip with Living Water for next year, he says he wasn't always one to take action.

"I always wanted to help but I used to be the person that would just write the check," he said. "But I decided I wanted to see where the money was going and the impact it was having firsthand."

He hopes that his story will inspire others to get out and offer a helping hand to those in need. It doesn't need to be halfway around the world, either. There is a lot of need in communities across the U.S. and it only takes a little to make a big difference, he said.

"Nobody is busier than me. I have a wife, twins and a full-time job," he said. "In reality there are a lot of excuses, but you can do it. Helping is easy. It doesn't take much to change somebody's life from dark to light."